That whole thing with Donald Trump and his doctor has found a way to get even worse for them both

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Donald Trump somehow managed to find a military doctor who was willing to announce that Trump was 6’3″ when he’s visibly no more than 6’2″, and that he weighs 239 pounds when he visibly weighs at least a few dozen pounds more. The doctor also declared that Trump was in fantastic cognitive health because he was correctly able to identify a picture of a rhinoceros. It was cartoonish even for a Trump scandal, and it was one of those things you just knew would get even worse.

Remarkably, when Trump turned around and rewarded Dr. Ronny Jackson for the glowing and fake medical report by nominating him to be the head of the VA, even that wasn’t the wackiest part of the scandal. Sure, why not put a doctor, who has no corporate or managerial experience, in charge of a massive bureaucracy? Now we’ve gotten to the part that’s just plain ugly, and it’s a tale involving prescription drug fraud and alcohol abuse.

The Senate committee vetting Jackson’s nomination has learned that he’s been accused of everything from being drunk on the job, to fraudulently prescribing drugs to patients. It’s not yet clear how valid these accusations are, or what the evidence is, but it’s explosive enough that the Senate promptly postponed Jackson’s confirmation hearings, without even bothering to schedule a new date. That doesn’t mean his nomination is officially dead, though the odds have been against him from the start. But it does remind us of an all too familiar pattern.

Any time something weird happens that doesn’t make any sense in Trump land, it always ends up being something much uglier by the time it’s all said and done. We’ve gone from a doctor comically lying about Donald Trump’s weight, to Trump illegitimately nominating that same doctor for a job he’s clearly not qualified for, to serious accusations of malpractice against that doctor. These things always get worse before they get even worse.

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